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Magic
Magic can be broken down into three flavors. The Machine of Shadows. (Analog computers and clockwork) Which is the more traditional spell casting with rituals and incantations. This magic is drawn from the Great Machine. In the Broken Worlds it is drawn from the Shadow Machine. When the Great Machine was sundered countless machina was cast out along with the God's Blood. Low level magic is common. Summoning and Elements: Drawbacks: When casting spells the wizard uses his arcane gifts to force the machine to bend to his will. Ethereal gears turn and a fireball erupts into life. The downside is that when forcing the machine sometimes it pushes back. Mechanical Effects: 1d20 DC equal to the spell level. On failure the player draws a card. The scale of the effect is dependent upon the card. The lower the number the weaker or more situational the effect. Internal effects are largely limited to affecting the casert. Their finger nails may become metallic, a strange churning sound in their chest may prevent them from sleeping. External effects general warp or change the spell. A fireball might douse the area in flaming oil with thick black smoke. The Machine of Spirit: (Digital and Circuitry) The machine of spirit exists in conjuction with the machine of shadows. It exists as an extension of the mind. It is energy, it flows along leylines Drawback: As the psion casts spells they build up a charge. They must roll a d20 under the cumulative spell levels store. Psions and trained psionic users can bleed this build up of energy into leylines to safely discharge it as fast as it generates. Wilders and untrained psionic users retain this charge until they discharge it as ectoplasm. It takes 5 minutes to discharge the stored spell levels and produces a globule of glowing blue goo. It takes 4 hours and the untrained psionic can boil the ecoplasm away. The Machine of Flesh: (Meat Space and biological machina) The magic of faith. Faith is harnessed by the gods of the broken world. They empower their clerics and demand sacrifices. As such clerics and other faith based casters do not have access to spells or spell like abilities. Drawbacks: The divine magic requires an intermediary between the caster and the magic. This is typically an idol or a god that grants the wielder their power. Gods are unknowable incalculable beings that grant magic as a byproduct of their very existance, much like we breath out carbon dioxide used by plants. Idols channel stored divine energy they get via worship and grant that to their would be clerics or casters. Idols are significantly weaker, an are very much human in their ego and vices. Idols require a large congregation in order to be empowered. Note: Travelling Idol character: A divine caster who carries their idol around will be forced to perform miracles or street magic inorder to generate and store spell levels to use to cast. Some sort of diplomacy/perform check. Result / 5 = spell levels stores. A 21 total will grant 4 spell levels which can be used in any combination to cast spells. Idols can store a number of spell levels independant to the cleric. Ie a level 20 idol can store 20 spell levels even for a level 1 cleric. Benefit: Cleric can bank divine energy (though there should be some manner of bleed, or risk of attracting something) Drawback: Cleric cannot regain spell levels except Orisons (which is granted by personal worship) though can sacrifice wealth to grant divine power. Domains: A cleric does not chose their domain, the idol is only able to offer one domain. Variant Channel applies. The Innate Divine: Which is the magic of nature. It is magic drawn from the God's Blood. It is the magic of nature. Druids are the most well known user of this type of magic. However, they are incredibly rare. They do not suffer the normal drawbacks and benefits of other methods of casting. However, when casting magic they are channeling reality, this causes the god's blood to flow around them. Increased pressure from reality causes things to become more real. Colors become more vibrant. Patterns more complex. Using D&D concepts it is like drawing on part of the First World or Fae. Patrons (Parasites) The Fourth branch of magic is unaligned with the Shadow/Spirit/Flesh trinity. It exists outside of it. It is a parasitoid magic that draws its energy from disparity. Example: Gnoll Matrons and their Scarab Priests The Gnoll Matrons are dead but continue to live by partitioning part of their soul into a Scarab Priest. The Scarab Priest absorbs the entropy caused by the Matron's death and decay causing her to become more alive. A with enough a Matron becomes filled with vitality and can even bear young though the spawn of such ghastly unions can be discussed later. The Scarab Priest can cast spells though they take unmitigated damage equal to the spell level. This is a blood cost for the spell drawn from the gnoll matron parasitizing the scarab priest. The basis of a Patron based caster is that the source of magic is drawn from an external source. A vampire could use their vampire as a source (though that would be very dangerous). Generally one would petition a strong being with innate magic to parasitize such as a dragon.